Welcome to Nevada
by Mandarax
Summary: She hadn't been to her new home yet. She'd only gotten to Nevada earlier that day and went straight to the office.


Welcome to Nevada by Mandarax

Rated K+

Summary – She hadn't been to her new home yet. She'd only gotten to Nevada earlier that day and went straight to the office.

Disclaimer – you never showed us what happened in Nevada…

* * *

She searched for her keys in her pocketbook, balancing her laptop case, duffle bag, and the groceries she bought (which contained eggs).

Excitement coursed through her.

She hadn't been to her new home yet. She'd only gotten to Nevada earlier that day and went straight to the office. At Daniel's convincing, she decided to let the Air Force ship her packed boxes and what little furniture she wanted to move from Colorado to Nevada on Saturday and place them in the house they selected for her. She stayed with Daniel for one last SG1 hurrah before they each went their own way. Granted, the General was stuck in meetings for the whole weekend and couldn't join them, but it was still an SG1 weekend.

On Monday, she took an early morning flight from Colorado to Nevada and the driver who picked her up took her straight to Area 51, her new base and new office and new lab. Nearly 12 hours later that same driver took her grocery shopping so she has something to eat at home, and then drove her to her new place.

The excitement slowly dissipated when she remembered the numerous boxes that waited to be unpacked and placed in new places in a house that was not her own, that was walls, floors and roof, doors and windows but no memorable corners, no pictures that reminded her of old stories, no books that were organized a certain way, no music that flowed softly in the air on Saturday mornings. Not that she was home on many Saturday mornings, really.

She will, from now on. That's what the transfer meant. Nine to five job. Researchers with spouses and children and dogs and white picket fences.

She'll have many Saturday mornings now.

For a moment she wondered if she remembered to tell the officer who asked her what she wanted in the new house that she needed three bedrooms. Cassie needs to have her own room, not a guest room, when she came home.

Finally finding the keys, just a split second before everything she held in her arms came crashing down to the floor, she pushed it into the keyhole and turned.

The door moved fluidly, sliding open at the slightest push. She walked in, looking at her new house for the first time. It was set up nicely, the door opened to a small hallway that led to a large living area with a door to a back yard. Off to the left was a hallway, the first door opening to a kitchen with a bar-like opening that looked onto the den, and beyond it were the two bathrooms and bedrooms.

Glancing around, already mentally placing her furniture around and making a list of things she'll need to buy, Sam dropped the duffle on the ground by the door, making carrying the groceries and the laptop easier.

Suddenly the hairs at the back of her neck stood. Straightening and reaching behind her back for her weapon, she listened carefully. There was a sound coming from the area of the den that she couldn't see. She lowered her computer and the groceries to the floor slowly, trying not to make a sound and flattened herself against the nearest wall. She removed the safety and pointed her gun forward, finger off the trigger but close enough to move there in a nanosecond, if the situation called for it. She moved toward the living room entrance, back against the wall, breathing slowly, silently. Reaching the end of wall that separated the entrance and the living room, she stopped, took a breath and turned around, pointing her weapon to the source of the noise.

"Jesus, Carter," the source said.

She switched the safety back and lowered her gun in an instant, smiling at her intruder. "Sir!"

"Come here often?" His mouth twitched, fighting against the smile that threatened to come out.

"My first time, actually," she answered nonchalantly, holstering her weapon and turning. "I thought you were all caught up in meetings in DC."

"Ah," he grunted, "Came to welcome the new head of R&D for artifacts brought from the SGC." At that, he planted a small kiss on her cheek.

"That's a mouthful," she chuckled, blushing slightly and moving away. "You weren't on base today though."

"No," he nodded, "will be tomorrow."

She turned and went back to collect her groceries. He followed her, picking up her laptop. She made her way to the kitchen to drop the groceries there. He put the laptop next to a half empty pizza box.

"Sir," she looked up at him, "How long have you been here?"

"Couple of hours," he admitted sheepishly. "I thought you'd come home early on your first day on the job when you've never been to your home before. Shoulda known better."

"Where did you get a number for a pizza place?" She lifted the box to look at the name. "And was it any good?"

"Was fine. Had better," he shrugged. "Had my secretary order one for me."

"Your secretary in DC?"

He half smiled, making her laugh. "I can't believe you ordered the first pizza to my new house and I wasn't even here."

He only smiled again and startrd rummaging in her grocery bag, pulling things out. "Ketchup? What do you need that for?"

It was her turn to shrug and blush slightly. There was nothing personal or hygienic in the bag but it was so… Familiar. Like he'd been doing this for years.

"Ah!" he yelped, "Beer!"

And his favorite, too. Sometime in the last few years Guinness had become her favorite too.

She removed her jacket and hung it on the back on of chairs in the house, between boxes labeled "kitchenware".

"I'm going to see what the rest of my house looks like," she announced. Somehow she wasn't surprised when she found him following her.

"I was thinking this should be Cassie's room," he point to the one at the far end of the hallway, right next to the bathroom.

She looked over her shoulder, surprised. She hadn't told anyone she'd asked for a room for Cassie. "Back of the house, privacy, close to the bathroom. I think you're right," she nodded.

She looked around the room, measured its length and size, started designing it for Cassie in her mind, knowing she wanted to leave it empty until Cassandra came for a visit and they would go furniture shopping together and make a weekend out of building up the room.

"Cass'll like it, I think," he said. "She'll probably want black furniture."

Sam chuckled, this time not surprised at all that he read her mind. She walked out of the room, and into the small bathroom, her to-buy list growing. The next room was the guest room, smaller but big enough for a bed and dresser. And last but not least was the master bedroom.

She was surprised at how big it was. She checked out the adjoined bathroom and returned to the room, already planning where the bed she still needed to buy would be. Glancing up, she saw her ex-CO lean on the doorframe, watching her.

"You can come in," she said softly. "It's not like you haven't been to my bedroom before."

He gave her a one shouldered shrug and stepped in.

"It's nice," she said softly. "Bigger than the one I had back home."

He only nodded.

"I'm thinking I'll put the bed over here," she pointed to the center of the room, "though I still have to go buy one. My mattress is in the living room."

"Need help moving it?"

"Maybe later." She turned around, looked outside the window. Desert. Not much to see. "Sir," she turned to look at him again, her eyes meeting his. "What exactly did you do for the couple of hours you were here?"

He blinked at her. "Opened one of the boxes labeled books."

Sam grinned and walked around him, her fingers brushing his, and walked back to the kitchen. She started unpacking the groceries and placing them in the refrigerator as he came into the room, reaching for a beer.

"So you need to buy a bed?"

She handed him a bottle opener she unpacked. "Yeah, I'll find an IKEA this weekend."

"Need help unpacking?"

She swung around, "Sir – "

"I didn't get to say goodbye like everyone else, Carter."

His brown eyes bore into her blue ones as she tried to digest his words.

"Because you weren't there for the last weekend?" she asked softly.

"Yeah… "

"We didn't do much," she said, now working on unpacking the silverware. "Sat around, watched a movie, nothing special."

He picked up a knife and sliced open another box. He started taking out glasses and mugs. She pointed at a cabinet and he started putting the glasses away. Neither spoke for a while as they continued unpacking.

She reached for the third box on the counter just as he did, their fingers brushing each other.

He froze for a moment then pulled a face and then grabbed her fingers. "Sam."

She looked at the fingers on her own and then up at him.

"I wanted to be there for you this weekend."

She laced her fingers with his. "Sir," and when his features twitched, "Jack," the twitch turned into a smile, "Thank you."

He untangled his fingers from her and cupped her cheek. "So, where do the plates go?"

She laughed softly, "I don't know. Haven't thought about it…"

"You need your plates closest to where you cook so it's easy to just pull one out."

"I don't cook."

"Well then closest to where the pizza, Chinese or tacos are going to be."

She laughed again and pointed to a cabinet behind her.

He moved towards it to open it but she stood still, not letting him pass. He bumped into her and his eyes snapped down to meet hers, the apologetic joke on his lips, but he stopped, the smile slowly disappeared as he drowned in her blue eyes.

"Kiss me."

He wasn't sure if the whisper was real or not but it didn't matter because his lips were on hers and nearly nine years and four and a half hours of waiting came crushing down on him as he wrapped his arms around her, deepening the kiss.

She wasn't standing still either; her arms snaking up his chest and around his neck to tangle in his hair and pull him closer.

She didn't need air.

She only needed him. She was disappointed when he couldn't make it to Colorado Springs for their last weekend together as a team. He called her, told her he was sorry, told her to have fun and order his favorite pizza and drink his favorite beer. He told her he wished he could be there with them, with her, instead of wasting the time in pointless and everlasting meetings.

Finally, he pulled back, pressing his forehead to hers. "As I was saying, your plates should be closest to where your food is going to be for easy reach."

Laughing, she swatted his chest.

He responded by capturing her lips again, kissing her with all the passion he'd held for so long.

"I kind of wish it was the weekend again," she whispered when he pulled away.

"I have to be in DC this weekend," his sighed. "But you can stay with me."

"I have a date with IKEA this weekend," she reminded him.

He grabbed her hand, "Come on, I'm taking you there right now."

She barely managed to pull her purse behind her before they were out the door.


End file.
